NFL
NFL Week 6
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Updated 13m ago
Tonight's “Monday Night Football” doubleheader saw a pair of upsets as the Chicago Bears beat the Washington Commanders 25-24 and the Atlanta Falcons beat the Buffalo Bills 24-14.
Jake Moody was the hero for the Bears, kicking a walk-off 38-yard field goal as time expired following a crucial fumble by Jayden Daniels. Moody, who was cut by the 49ers last month, was elevated from Chicago's practice squad earlier today due to an injury to Cairo Santos.
The Falcons were carried by a dynamic duo as Bijan Robinson racked up 238 total yards from scrimmage, including an 81-yard touchdown run, while Drake London caught 10 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown. The loss dropped the Bills out of first place in the AFC East, putting them behind the Patriots due to their head-to-head tiebreaker.
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The Bears had been waiting for the D’Andre Swift Game. Maybe it wasn’t some 200-yard explosion, but Swift’s 55-yard touchdown on third down was clutch and kept the Bears in the game. His runs on the final drive helped set up Jake Moody’s game-winning field goal, most critically, his 15-yard on a toss play on second-and-11 from the 33-yard line.
It was Swift's best rushing game of the season, and the Bears finally created some running lanes for him. While the offense still has plenty to sort out in the run game, and the third-down offense had a rough night, finally unlocking Swift could go a long way to making everything else work.
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Washington’s run game disappeared. The Commanders came in with one of the league’s best rushing attacks and the Bears entered with one of the worst rushing defenses. You wouldn’t know it after watching this game. The Commanders couldn’t generate much of any production on the ground, unless the ball was in Jayden Daniels’ hands. He had 52 of the team’s 124 rushing yards.
Jayden Daniels is still Jayden Daniels. The Commanders’ top two receivers were sidelined with injuries, their third-best wideout was hobbled by a heel injury, and the run game could generate much of anything. No problem for Daniels. The Commanders’ offense was flat for nearly three full quarters, but then Kliff Kingsbury ran a fake screen that resulted in a 33-yard TD pass to Luke McCaffrey.
On Washington’s next drive, Daniels found rookie Jaylin Lane for a 37-yard completion along the right sideline to step up a 6-yard TD to tight end Zach Ertz. And just like that, the Commanders, once trailing 13-0, took an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Washington still makes the same costly mistakes: blown coverages, missed tackles, explosive plays allowed, receiver drops and fumbles. After jumping to a sizable lead in the fourth quarter, safety Quan Martin — who had the third-down stop during a critical sequence — whiffed on an attempted tackle of D’Andre Swift, allowing the RB to run 55 yards for a touchdown.
Martin had him right along the sideline and could’ve just pushed him out of bounds, but instead, Chicago climbed back into the game.
Of course, this game came down to the final minute. And, of course, the game-deciding moment relied on the right leg of a kicker playing his first game with the Bears and only activated to the 53-man roster Monday afternoon. Jake Moody’s game-deciding 38-yard field goal attempt split the uprights at Northwest Stadium.
Moody’s game-winning kick was his fourth field goal of the night but also came after he opened the fourth quarter with a 48-yard attempt that was blocked. Moody, filling in for Cairo Santos, who was inactive due to a quadriceps injury, crunched his final kick.
Atlanta defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has plenty of experience against Josh Allen after they shared four years together in the AFC East, and the Falcons were the beneficiaries of that Monday night.
The Falcons were aggressive against Allen and finished with four sacks and six quarterback hurries and a game-sealing interception while holding Buffalo to 291 yards, many of which were gained on the final drive.
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The Bills' offense, to put it bluntly, looks like a shell of itself. For a team that averaged 30-plus points through the first four games, Buffalo managed only 34 during the past two games and looked hapless outside of its opening drive of the first half and the opening drive of the second half.
The Bills had a big problem at wide receiver entering the game, and then an in-game injury to Joshua Palmer during the contest made the problem even worse. Offensive coordinator Joe Brady was calling all the wrong notes after the defense gave them one opportunity after another to try and tie the game.
Falcons left tackle Jake Matthews entered the game with the league’s longest active starting streak. He opened his 183rd consecutive game on Monday night, but he did not play in the second half due to an ankle injury. He is the third Atlanta tackle to be injured this season. Right tackle Kaleb McGary was lost for the season in the preseason, and third-string tackle Storm Norton has yet to play this year due to a foot injury.
The result of all that was that the Falcons played the second half with their fourth- and fifth-string tackles. Elijah Wilkinson has manned the right tackle position all season, and Michael Jerrell replaced Matthews.
The Bills could not have had a worse start to this game, making it somewhat of a miracle that they were in the game right down to the last moments. The defense allowed 299 yards … to only two players … in the first half. It was as bad as it sounds.
They had no answers for either running back Bijan Robinson or Drake London the entire game, even with a better showing in the second half. In total, the pair accrued 396 yards for the game, as the rest of the Falcons' skill players had 64.
Playing across the field from reigning MVP Josh Allen, Atlanta running back Bijan Robinson put in an MVP-caliber performance. The third-year running back finished with a career-high 238 yards from scrimmage that included a spectacular 81-yard touchdown run in the first half. Robinson’s effort ended one short of the most scrimmage yards in a game this season. Carolina’s Rico Dowdle had a 239-yard game Sunday.
Robinson had 19 carries for a career-high 170 yards on the ground and six catches for 68 yards. Robinson said this week that he never lobbies for more work in the offense. Not that he needs to.
They say sequels usually aren't better than the original. This might be true for Commanders fans especially tonight.
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Week 6 is complete in the NFL, but Week 7 is only a couple of days away with the Steelers and Bengals facing off on Thursday in Cincinnati.
Here’s the complete Week 7 schedule.
💬 Jakob S.: Building a winning culture. Finding a way to win even when things don’t go right. That’s two straight games the Bears definitely would have lost last year.
💬 Sean C.: Props to Swift, dude absolutely balled out.
💬 Jim S.: Bad football tonight by the Commanders. Gotta hand it to the Bears for doing enough to get the W.
💬 Matthew C.: Moody the hero. Good for him.
💬 Brandon S.: I don’t know if the schedule allows it but I hope Washington and Chicago get to play once a year. Seems to be a fun non-divisional rivalry forming with some storylines and close games the last two years.
The Commanders fall to 3-3 with their loss tonight and remain behind the Eagles in the division standings.
The NFC North is the only division in the NFL in which every team is currently above .500.
Jayden Daniels – 19 of 26 for 211 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT; 10 carries for 52 yards
Jacory Croskey-Merritt – 17 carries for 61 yards
Chris Moore – 3 catches for 46 yards and 1 TD
Zach Ertz – 6 catches for 43 yards and 1 TD
Luke McCaffrey – 1 catch, 33 yards, 1 TD
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Caleb Williams – 17 of 29 for 252 yards and 1 TD
D'Andre Swift – 14 carries for 108 yards; 2 catches for 67 yards and 1 TD
Luther Burden III – 4 catches for 51 yards
DJ Moore – 3 catches for 42 yards
Jake Moody – 4 of 5 field goals made
Bears' defense with three takeaways (INT and two fumble recoveries)
Washington (3-3) plays Sunday at Dallas.
Chicago (3-2) hosts New Orleans on Sunday.
